SiC (silicon carbide) has been expected to be used as a material for a next-generation semiconductor device. Compared to Si (silicon), SiC has more excellent physical properties, i.e., SiC has three times as much bandgap as Si, about ten times as much breakdown field strength as Si, and about three times as much thermal conductivity as Si. A semiconductor device having low energy loss and operable at high temperature can be realized by utilizing such properties.
On the other hand, n-type SiC has a disadvantage of a short lifetime of a minority carrier. Reduction in an on resistance of a bipolar device using n-type SiC for a drift layer is difficult due to a short lifetime of a minority carrier.